Nintendo’s E3 presentation was as bad as Microsoft. Had they not announced release dates of games I want, I’d probably say worse. Highlights:

– Bragging
– Charts
– Release dates
– Montages
– Charts
– Wii Zapper, which will come with a game (how about a game that comes with the zapper instead of a zapper that comes with a shitty after thought of a pack in?)
– Mario Kart coming early next year with online races and a stupid plastic steering wheel. Also with the new feature of “skill not mattering” that levels the playing field for all new gamers
– Charts
– Bad puns
– Montages
– High School Musical, the amazing game based off of the movie of the same name
– Wii Fit, complete with Wii Pad to Wii stand on

I thought Reggie was supposed to not suck. Someone lied to me. Perhaps at least one of his jokes would have not induced cringing in the audience had he delivered them like a comedian or orator and not like a marketing drone.

Jesus Christ, Nintendo. I know you are doing well but spend some time and effort on E3 speeches.

Their stance on hardcore games was also the opposite of what most of us expected. They keep releasing mass appeal stuff. I’m fine with that (many people aren’t), but expected Nintendo to stress that they were also interested in serving the hardcore gamer. After showing a few first party titles and Call of Duty (which also apparently proves Nintendo has already gone online and we all just didn’t notice), Reggie went on about how they also were focusing on mass appeal games. He actually thought we were satisfied with the few clips we saw. The first third of the presentation was on the expanding market…and so was the last third!

Oh, and Wii Fit looks decent. Not sure a poorly modeled woman will inspire me to exercise when even Carmen Electra can’t, but it’ll still probably sell about four sextillion copies.

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The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that Nintendo is going to forget about their hardcore gamers. It seems like all we’re going to get is updates to their old franchises. If Nintendo wants to make something new, more often than not, it’s going to be a non-gamer game. Nintendo has that market down pat, but I’m not a non-gamer. But I am a Nintendo fan. Have I been pushed aside? From what I saw at E3, yes, I have been. Was there even a new game announced today that wasn’t some Brain Age styled game? Metroid and Mario are awesome, but what happens after that?

What new games were announced, Mario Kart? That wasn’t called a non-game when it came out on the SNES. I am worried, too, and it’s possible Nintendo for the most part abandons old gamers but I can’t see it happening with all third parties, too (assuming the Wii is successful…er).

The PS2 had huge mass appeal games like Madden and GTA and still found room for niche RPGs. This is usually how markets work. At first there may be an influx of party game games but eventually there will be many smaller developers formed around making money from niche products.

Let me put it this way – If the most popular thing was always where every company went and the only thing that sold, a company like Treasure wouldn’t have lasted for more than a month.

I can’t stop being amazed at how inept the presentations are for all 3 companies. Sony was particularly bad. They seriously need to fire their PR team, because they clearly have no idea who their audience is. They put a bunch of mindnumbingly boring executives on stage who proceed to walk through a script fit for a boring Monday morning corporate meeting, not a video gaming conference. And then they bring out some ridiculous dressed up character and pretend-talk to him as if they are trying to entertain a 5 year old child. Meanwhile, there is not a kid in the audience. I mean, seriously, can’t they get SOMEONE who exhibits SOME kind of coolness and gaming spirit to talk up there? Ridiculous.